Side-by-side household refrigerators include a fresh food storage compartment and a freezer storage compartment. Each storage compartment has a front access opening normally closed by a fresh food door and a freezer door, respectively. Some refrigerators include intermediate storage compartments (e.g., beverage storage compartment) in the fresh food compartment and accessible without opening the fresh food compartment door. For example, a separate access door may be mounted to the fresh food compartment door, and such access door normally closes a front access opening in the fresh food door. The intermediate storage compartment, sometimes referred to as a refreshment center, is accessible by opening the access door.
It would be desirable to improve the appearance, performance, and usefulness of refreshment centers. Of course, in making such improvements, the costs associated with fabrication and assembly of such centers cannot become excessive. For example, in at least some known refreshment centers, the access door is bulky and is not easy to open. Further, the hinge systems used with some known access doors form a tight fit with the access door and refrigerator compartment. At least with these known configurations, the bulky door and tight fit of the hinge system are required in order to prevent significant leakage of cooled air through the access opening. The bulky door and tight fit of the hinge system, however, increase the difficulty in cleaning the refreshment center and are not aesthetically pleasing.